


Train to Hell

by Deadlynightshade1395



Category: Death Note
Genre: Alternate Universe, Death, Horror, M/M, eventual NSFW, some gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 20:16:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1562642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deadlynightshade1395/pseuds/Deadlynightshade1395
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mello boarded the train to his new school thinking it was the start of his new life, too bad it's probably the end. (I am horrible at summaries)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I finally got an AO3 account, I have the same username over on FF.Net but figured I'd really like to get an account here since I read more things here than on FF. This is the first solid multichapter I've ever written and it's still in progress but I'll try to update regularly.

Mello  
The rain was coming down hard outside the train window and I sighed, I didn’t even know why I’d bothered to get on this train. I wasn’t going to pass my exams with top scores, that idiot Near would come out on top once again and I would just get another speech from my professor about working harder. I scowled; he acted as if I didn’t already work my ass off to be second in the class. The train was shaking over the tracks and part of me silently prayed for it to tip just enough for me to fall out. I wasn’t suicidal exactly but sometimes I did think about how it would be easier if I was dead. Or maybe I’d just been in this train for too long. My testing was being held in an old castle that had been converted into a large private school; of course traveling by train took longer. I was unable to afford a plane ticket so the train was my only option, it took several days to get from my home in England to a deep part of Germany and I was getting rather tired of being around these people. I had two loud Americans in the cabin next to mine, three very loud Irish men in the cabin on the other side, and a mix of thirteen other people from different countries. With a sigh I closed my textbook, leaning my head against the foggy window. The only person that remotely interested me on this train was a quiet red head who was around my age; he wore orange goggles and kept to himself, only coming out for food. He didn’t talk to anyone or at least not that I’d seen. Red walked past me, I found my head automatically tipping to subtly look at his ass. Not bad. Not bad at all. Quickly I turned my head away, closing my eyes tightly; I didn’t have time for things like that. A relationship of any kind would just mess with my emotions and get in the way of my education. My studies in surgery and physics were all I had and they would be for a long time. The train shook again, drawing gasps from the other passengers. I had to admit the shaking even made me nervous. Slowly I got up, making my way back to my cabin. It was about time for everyone to turn in—the train staff had a requested lights out time—and I wanted to get into my bed and take my sleeping pill before they all came in. Not bothering to change out of my uniform I sat on my bed, holding my bag in my lap. I could already hear my neighbors heading back to their cabin; it seemed that I wouldn’t be getting a good night’s sleep tonight. The train shook violently; I held my breath and clutched the small pole by my bed tightly.  
‘Trains shake Mello. You know that.’ I tried to convince myself.  
Swallowing hard I worked up the courage to peek out my window, we were over a large fast rushing river. Well no comfort there. I held my bag with all my things inside it tightly to my chest, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to ignore the noise of the river rushing below the train. I wasn’t particularly fond of rivers. A large groan came from the gears and the lights began to flicker eerily as the train screeched to a halt. Through the thin walls I could hear my neighbors panicking and I felt it get to me. My heart pounded in my chest, only relaxing when the train slowly started up again. We continued on the rickety tracks slowly, the gears still giving an unsettling groan now and then. The train attendants must have been disturbed by it too because they came over the loud speaker, requesting that we all stay in our cabins. My eyes scanned the room, searching for the plaque that I knew every train had inside that said when the train was made. I found it next to my small bed stand, it read in calligraphy letters: Eighteen Eighty. I nearly threw up; this was an old train, a very old train.  
‘They would’ve done repairs you idiot. They wouldn’t just use a train as it was that was built in the eighteen hundreds.’  
Somehow I couldn’t get myself to believe that even though it was logical thinking. Groaning I curled up in my small bed, clutching my bag tighter trying to relax. A sudden crack echoed through the air and screams rang throughout the cabins.  
“The tracks are breaking!”  
My heart pounded like a jack rabbit in my chest and I held onto the small pole like a life line, holding on as the train tilted from side to side. It was still moving at a high speed, the engineers trying to get us across the tracks before they broke completely. Loud cracks came from the front of the train and suddenly we were falling through the air, the train rushing towards the rocks below. Everything was so loud—the people screaming, sounds of the train breaking in the air, crunching metal and wood as some parts hit the ground—I could barely tell what was really happening. My train car crashed into the water, I held my breath and struggled to open the window; I had to get out before the car sunk to the bottom. The window slid down, I slid my bag out first but kept a hand on the strap, slipping out after it and quickly swimming my way to the surface. My head broke the surface and I gulped down air, some water went down with the deep breaths and I choked it back up. Wildly looking around I spotted a small piece of land not too far off. Swimming to it was difficult with the rapids being as fast as they were but I eventually made it. A few other people were climbing over the edge with me, all in various states of distress. One man had to be helped up, one of his legs twisted so far his knee was facing backwards. Somewhere deep inside of me I was relieved when I saw a familiar flash of red hair crawling up with a few others. They seemed to be the last ones though, sixteen of us out of almost two hundred passengers.  
‘Guess the student car was lucky…’  
I helped Red and a woman gather everyone who was injured and patch them up as best as we could, although there were some we really couldn’t help that well. One woman had cracked her head open rather grossly on a rock and the best we could do was wrap one man’s over shirt around her head as tightly as possible. I wasn’t confident that she would make it more than a few hours; the thought scared me more than I wanted to admit. All of us gathered in a small circle, no words being exchanged. We all knew we were in big trouble; we were stuck on a small patch of land at the bottom of a huge gorge. Even if a rescue team came looking for survivors would they think to come all the way to the bottom or would they only extend their search to the small cliffs up above? Red was the first one to speak up.  
“We need to find out what we can do for food, we’ve already got a steady source of water.” He gestured to the river. “Does anyone have anything on them? We can split it up evenly; it’ll give us something while we find out what to do.”  
I held up my hand. “I have chocolate, plenty of it. It’s not exactly the best thing but it’s what I’ve got.”  
Another woman spoke up. “I have some saltine crackers. They should still be dry they were in an unopened package.”  
He nodded. “Good, see we’re already planning.” His voice was oddly soothing. “We can all get through this we just need to help each other. Everyone has to work together, no one can just think about their own survival.”  
I wasn’t sure about the others but I agreed immediately, Red was calm and he had more of a plan than anyone else in our group. He pointed at me suddenly and I sat up a bit straighter.  
“Name?”  
“Mello.”  
“Okay, Mello you help me out okay? You and I are going to be sort of leaders.”  
No one argued which surprised me, usually in these situations everyone wanted to be the leader. Apparently no one here wanted to be responsible if we didn’t make it. Slowly I stood and went over to speak with him, the two of us going into a corner of the piece of land to talk more privately. I crossed my arms, looking him over. He didn’t seem to be too injured just a few scrapes and bruises littering the parts of his skin that I could see.  
“…where do we look for food? If you haven’t noticed we’re not exactly on an island filled with coconuts and fruits or animals.”  
He fidgeted, not making eye contact. “This is a nice sized piece of land yeah? There must be some way to get to some food. Maybe there are fish in the river. We already have plenty of sticks and scrap pieces of wood to make a fire and we can use broken parts of the train for shelter.”  
Crossing my arms I looked around, he was right there was a lot of wood and things we could use to stay warm and safe but otherwise we were screwed. As far as I could see there were no fish in the water. If there were I would be able to see them from the surface right? He picked up two sharp sticks and handed one to me.  
“We can use this to try to catch fish.”   
He made a stabbing motion with it and I looked at him skeptically. He couldn’t really think that this would work. For the next few hours we were bent over the edge near the river stabbing our sticks into the water in hopes that we would catch a fish. We weren’t having any luck though and I could tell that it was starting to worry Red a bit; it was almost as if he didn’t want the group thinking he lied to them when he said we could survive. Slowly I slid away from the edge and sat up on my knees, looking at him seriously.  
“I’ll distribute the crackers, you keep trying.”  
Once he’d nodded I got up and retrieved the crackers, passing out one to everyone in the group and took two out for myself and Red before putting them away. The woman who had cracked her head open had to get help from a few people to eat her cracker. After we ate Red and I dragged part of a train car out of the water with the help of several other men and set it near the back of our little land, we wanted it as far away from the river as possible. The next step was to light a fire which we did with minimal struggle thanks to a man that had been carrying a lighter. We all huddled inside the train car with the soggy blankets we’d found, sharing warmth by keeping pressed together in one big pile. Everyone slept but I couldn’t, something was keeping me awake but I didn’t know what it was. Red shifted next to me and I tried to stay still, not wanting to wake up him or anyone else.  
His soft voice sounded to my left. “You still awake Mello?”  
I whispered back. “Yeah Red. You can’t sleep either huh?”  
He choked back a laugh. “Red?”  
Shifting I turned to face him more, a small smile on my lips when I saw his face focused on me in the moon light.  
“I don’t know your name and your hair is red. So yeah. Red.”  
He grinned. “My name is Matt.”  
I nodded slowly, wrapping some of my blanket around him when I noticed he was still shivering. Matt gave a silent thanks and leaned into me more, his red hair tickling my nose. So far he was the only one that didn’t smell like blood and burnt metal. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep after that and I only woke when the sun started to shine brightly through the broken windows. In the back of my head I made a note that we should make curtains if we got our hands on extra clothe. Matt and I had agreed to keep my extra clothes intact in case someone needed new clothes badly. The fire was still going strong due to another large pile of drift wood passing by and quickly being snatched up to be used. I stretched as I got out of the train car, my joints giving satisfying pops as I did. Matt was already up by the river trying to catch fish again, sweat shining on his face. I passed out crackers for breakfast and helped people get water to drink and to use to cool down a bit. Now that the sun was out it was warm and muggy, a thin fog rolling across the top of the water. Something seemed wrong though; I counted the people in our group and came up with fifteen. That wasn’t right. My heart went into my throat and I looked around once more trying to spot who was missing. The woman who had cracked her head open was nowhere to be found and I alerted Matt. He was much calmer than I was and immediately went to the train car.  
“She’s in here resting. Everything’s okay.”  
My heart calmed and I sat on a small rock, rubbing my face. I felt bad for getting everyone scared but finding that we had one less person was terrifying. Everyone here probably had family; I wanted to do everything I could to get them back home and safe. As for me I would just return to school, my family was long gone and I was on my own. No one was looking for me and no one would miss me. I snapped out of my thoughts when everyone gathered around near the river and stared at something in the water. Slowly I got up and joined them, wondering if it was another piece of wreckage that they were trying to figure out how to pull out. Bile rose in my throat when my eyes landed on the pale grey body stuck in the rocks, the man’s neck was snapped and there was a large gouge in his side. He must have fallen on something sharp on his way down.  
“…what do we do with him?” One man asked.  
“We should pull him up,” A quiet woman spoke up. “So when they find us his family can give him a proper burial.”  
Five of us knelt by the edge while five others held our ankles to make sure we didn’t fall in by mistake, we pulled the man’s body up and set him on the ground far away from our train car. I don’t think anyone was comfortable having him there.

On day six we ran out of food, after all how far was a group of sixteen people supposed to survive on a pack of saltine crackers and ten chocolate bars? We were all curled up in the train car together trying to stay warm, the days and nights had been freezing and we didn’t have the advantage of a bright sun in the morning anymore. Matt and I had closed up the cracks in the train car with bits of scrap metal and wood that couldn’t be used for kindling, it didn’t help much but it was better than nothing. Once everyone was asleep Matt and I wriggled out to talk by the fire.  
“What do we do about this?” I whispered. “How long can humans survive without food?”  
He seemed stressed. “I don’t know…maybe…maybe fish…”  
“Matt. There are no fish. It’s an empty river.”  
Actually saying those words made everything truly sink in and for the first time I think I really realized how much trouble we were in. He and I sat in silence for a long time, both unwilling to say what needed to be said. Discreetly I looked at the body not too far away from us, it was the only source of food left. The thought of considering another human being food made me sick to my stomach but did we really have a choice? It was either use what we had or starve.  
“Matt…”  
He shook his head. “I know. Don’t say it.”  
We went back to staring into the fire blankly, warming our hands and drawing absent patterns in the dirt around us with our fingers. Obviously we’d wait to talk to the group about it; we had to take a poll on who would agree to do this. I wasn’t sure what Matt and I would do if people disagreed or if people reacted badly. Neither of us was very big and I didn’t think the two of us could take on any of the other people in the group if they decided they needed to attack us for the suggestion. We didn’t go back to sleep that night, instead we sat in front of the fire and waited for the sun to rise and for everyone to crawl out of the train car. Gathering them in a circle Matt and I stood at the front, I took the lead to talk to them.  
“We’re out of food.” I started off shakily. “There’s no fish in the river, we have nothing except…for the body.”  
Immediately people protested horrified at my suggestion and the very idea of it.  
“Hey!” Matt interrupted. “This isn’t the time for your traditional morals okay? Like Mello said we have nothing. You all want to live and go back to your kids and spouses right? So shut up and take a second to think about what we’re saying. We can either eat the meat off of the body or we can all slowly starve to death. Everyone who wants to live stand on the left, everyone who’d rather starve stand on the right.”  
Slowly people stood up and separated into groups on the left and the right; there were only three people on the right who would rather starve than eat a body.  
“Right,” I sighed. “Matt and I will do the…gathering of the meat. Everyone I suggest you go back inside the train if you don’t want to see.”  
As soon as the squeamish people went back inside Matt and I went to work at carefully gathering everything edible from the body and setting it on a large piece of metal we’d washed off in the river. I ended up having to wash off a few more pieces to have a place for all of the meat as Matt cooked it but soon we had a good amount of meat that we could save. It was Matt’s idea to put it in the coldest corner of the train—the one that we all stayed away from—to keep it fresh. It didn’t look too bad; it almost looked just like little pieces of steak that you got in a fancy restaurant. The organs didn’t look so normal but I had insisted on keeping every edible bit of meat. Matt and I would have to make this last as long as we could.


	2. Chapter 2

The next night Matt and I sat in front of the fire with our meat for the day in our hands, staring at it rather than trying to eat it. I closed my eyes tightly and took a small bite, choking it down. Once my brain got past the fact of what it was it didn’t taste so bad, it was almost like chicken. Almost.  
“This really isn’t appropriate but your face looks like a baby trying a lemon for the first time.” Matt was smiling weakly at me and I rolled my eyes, smiling back.  
“Very inappropriate but very true.” I finished the bit of meat, noting that he was already done with his. I guess he had a stronger stomach than I did. “How long do you think this will last for us?”  
“Maybe…a week and a half?” He shrugged, looking unsure. “Mello do you think they’re looking for us?”  
I paused, looking up at the cliffs above us and the stars. No one had heard any noises and I wasn’t sure whether or not we’d be able to even if they were searching. It was a scary thought to think that they weren’t even bothering to look. Perhaps they’d decided no one could possibly survive the crash, perhaps they didn’t even care. So I lied.  
“I’m sure they are Matt, this would be a big thing and I’m sure they’ve already got people on it. Who knows they may almost be down to where we are and just scanning from the start. I think we drifted quite a bit.”  
He nodded slowly and threw another stick into the fire.  
He surprised me by murmuring, “Do you have family Mello?”  
I blinked, shaking my head. “No, they’re…gone. Long gone. What about you?”  
Matt shook his head too. “Only child and parents are dead.”  
Somehow this information made me seem closer to him, as if we had more in common than I could even imagine. He was in the student car with me so he was obviously going to the same private school I was headed to and despite his best attempts to cover them I could see great intelligence in his eyes. I desperately wanted to push up his orange goggles and get a closer look at them but knew that it’d not only be weird but unwelcome. A sudden shout came from one of our group members and we rushed behind the train to see what was going on. The group was standing there staring at a new hole in the rock wall, a hole that seemed to be a cave passage.  
“I leaned against it and it just collapsed…” The shocked man explained.  
Curiously I poked my head inside, trying to see if I could make out anything in the shadows. However it was pitch black in there and without a flashlight it was impossible.  
“Does anyone have a flashlight?” When everyone shook their head I sighed. “Guess we’ll have to walk through blind if we decide to explore it…”  
Matt looked at me amused. “Mello. We have fire. We can make a torch.”  
I blushed a light pink, shoving at his arm. “Oh stop looking at me like that, my brain is a bit fuzzy.”  
He gently pushed past me, holding a stick with a shirt wrapped around it that he’d lit on fire. “You probably just need to take a shit.”  
“…only you would make a joke about crap when in a situation like this.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him, turning to the group. “Everyone stay close together.”  
Slowly we stepped into the opening, Matt holding up the torch to light the way. I followed him with our other survivors, eyes scanning the cave passage. Along the rock walls there were odd carvings painted with what seemed to be a bioluminescent substance. One man almost dipped his finger in it but I stopped him, there was no way of knowing if it was poisonous or not. We continued to walk for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes, until we came to an opening at the other end. It was covered with a thin piece of wood and for some reason my heart began to thump wildly inside my chest. That door spelled trouble, we didn’t know what was behind it...or who. Matt, who was still in the lead, put his hand on the wood and pulled. It slid away easily to reveal old piles of rubble and several half standing stone houses. Behind them, far in the distance, was a huge medieval castle. Matt rushed to where I was standing, excitement obvious on his face.  
“Mello, do you think that could be the private school?!”  
Quickly I climbed on top of a pile of rubble, standing to get a better view. I had to squint my eyes to be able to get a good look at the castle.  
“I…I guess it could be. Does anyone recognize this place?” I looked around at the survivors, noticing one girl cowering. “You, do you know this place?”  
She nodded shakily. “My mother told stories of this isle. She said it was inhabited with flesh eating monsters. The monsters took on human form but all they would ever do is continue to sate their hunger for flesh and blood.”  
Well that was very uncomforting, we all stood in silence as we looked around. It seemed deserted but then…why would there be freshly cut wood in front of the houses? And why did the air smell like someone was cooking?  
Matt spoke up before I could. “Everyone just stay calm alright? It’s just a story. Let’s split up into pairs of two and search this place okay? We’ll meet back here by the cave.”  
While I stood to the side everyone split up into pairs, I was happy and relieved when Matt came to be my partner.  
“Ready to search?” Matt had a nervous smile on his lips.  
“Ready as I’ll ever be…”  
The two of us moved to search the new stretch of land; while Matt’s back was turned I grabbed the nearest thing that I could use as a weapon. I didn’t believe the girl’s story it was just a fairy tale but…just in case. Matt and I walked past the land and houses we could see as all the other pairs had already taken to searching around them. Obviously they didn’t want to go far beyond the cave. We stood in front of what seemed to be the biggest house in the village, Matt’s hands clutching a large stick which I hadn’t noticed him pick up.  
He looked at me sheepishly when he saw me looking. “Just in case.”  
I held up my own makeshift weapon and he relaxed, he seemed comforted by the fact that I was as just as nervous as he was.  
“Should…should we go in?” He asked hesitantly.  
Slowly I ran my hand along the door and tested the handle, it was unlocked.   
“I guess so…” With that I pushed the door open; it was pitch black inside and Matt held up the torch to shine some light into the room.  
There were holes in the old wood floorboards and the walls were covered with dried old stains of substances I couldn’t even begin to guess. I put one foot inside and Matt grabbed my arm tight.  
“Let me go first, it’s dangerous.”  
I blinked, looking down at his hand on my arm; he wouldn’t let me go first because it was dangerous? What was I a princess all the sudden?  
“I can handle it thank you very much.” I scowled, pulling my arm out of his grip.  
“I’m sure you can just…” He went deep red. “Just let me go first damn it.”  
He wormed his way in front of me and took the first step inside, the wood creaked beneath him but held. Matt made his way to the middle of the room, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.  
“Okay Mello it’s safe—”  
As soon as the word safe left his mouth the floor broke open and Matt disappeared.  
I screamed. “Matt?!”   
Quickly and carefully I made my way to the spot where he’d fallen, trying to see down the hole.  
“Matt?!”  
“Ow.” He simply said.  
“Thank god…you okay?”  
“Besides a bruised ass yeah I’m fine.” I heard him moving around in the dark. “I lost the torch though.”  
“That doesn’t matter, you’re okay.” I leaned down, putting my hand out. “Grab my hand I’ll pull you up.”  
Our hands smacked together a few times, both of us having to lean as far as we could just to get our fingers to touch. Finally we gripped hands and I pulled.  
“Christ Matt you’re a lot heavier than you look.” I grunted in effort.  
“Thanks a lot.” He groaned, dragging himself up and out with my help. “Damn my ass hurts…”  
I spoke before even thinking about my words. “If you want I’ll make it feel better later.” I could feel a dark red spread along my cheeks immediately.  
Matt spluttered and dusted himself off quickly, clearing his throat and pulling me away from the hole. I was thankful that he was nice enough to just drop it and not comment; I honestly wasn’t sure where that had come from. He put one foot on the first step of the stairs and pushed down as hard as he could. When it held he did it for each stair with me following close behind. I had to look anywhere else but in front of me because his butt was right in my face. We walked along the landing, the sunlight pouring in from the windows and lighting the rooms. There were a ton of rooms and halls stretching back so far that we would have to walk them all to explore every bit of the house.  
“There’s a kitchen, a dining room…hey there’s fresh fruit in the kitchen!” He rushed to grab it but I grabbed the back of his shirt.  
“Do you really think we should just eat things lying around in a dusty old house? We’ll find the trees and take from them.”  
He bit his lip and nodded. “You’re right, sorry I guess I’m just too hungry to really think things through.”  
“We all are Matt, but we’re the leaders. We need to keep our heads.”  
Matt sighed but agreed, leaving the house with me to search for the fruit trees. I sat on his shoulders to reach the small amount of fruit we could find, mainly apples and a few pears.  
“These look great Matt, we don’t have to eat meat tonight.” I climbed down his body, handing him some so I didn’t have to hold them all. We started making our way back to the cave, curious to find out what everyone else found. After making our way back through the cave we sat in a circle around the fire and cut up a few apples so everyone could have two slices. The trees were still full even after we picked so we weren’t worried about running out so soon, we could splurge for just one night. Matt and I took turns explaining what we found, listening intently to the other’s stories. All the other houses had had furniture in it and a fruit in the kitchen like the house we’d searched. Thankfully no one had touched the fruit; they had all found it odd like I had. I moved slightly out of the circle to help the woman with the head injury eat her slices. She looked fine and even politely thanked me for helping her. I was glad; at least we didn’t have to worry about losing another person. Eventually we all moved back into the train car and huddled up to sleep, Matt and I pressing close together and sharing our blanket.

When we awoke we found something that made our hearts drop. The woman with the head injury had passed away in the night, we weren’t sure why. She had seemed okay the night before but…looks can be deceiving I suppose. It was just so strange to think that a woman I’d spoken to less than seven hours ago was now lying lifeless on the ground as far away from our things as possible. A choked sob escaped me—much to my shock really, it wasn’t like I’d gotten close to her—and I curled into Matt who was sitting beside me. His warm hand rubbed against my back slowly, his fingers curling into my shirt.  
“We did everything we could Mell…we tried…”  
I nodded weakly. “We tried.”  
“…let’s wait before we collect from her.” He looked green at the thought.  
“I’ll do it okay? I won’t make you do any of it.”  
He grabbed my hand and squeezed tight in silent thanks; I enjoyed the feeling of our hands pressed together, his thin fingers curling around my own comfortably. I felt a familiar tingling in the pit of my stomach and jerked our hands away, making an excuse about getting more fruit and running to the other side of the passage. The attraction I held for him had showed up around the first week of our being stranded. This was the first time I felt arousal. I quickly went to the orchard and sat beneath one of the trees, trying to calm my mind and, most importantly, my body. Honestly I didn’t want to be attracted to him, I didn’t want to go down that road and risk my school career. School came first, stupid crushes second. Still I found myself slipping a hand down between my legs to touch myself. I tried to let go and give in to the beginnings of pleasure that I felt but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to do it, not in this situation. Giving a soft sigh I got to my feet and turned toward the house Matt and I had explored the day before. The door was still unlocked and it seemed every dust particle was just where we’d left it. Curiously I grabbed a stick from outside and used it prod the fruit still on the counter. Suddenly a rusty hunter’s trap clamped shut over the stick, the wood giving a snap reminiscent to the sound of breaking bone. Shakily I dropped the end of the stick I was still holding, hurrying back through the passage to where everyone was sitting, Matt was standing and gave me a concerned look as I burst through.  
“Mello?”  
“The…the fruit on the…” I panted, trying to regain my breath. “It triggered a hunter’s trap; you know those ones they use on bears and wolves. All I did was nudge it with a stick.”   
He paled slightly, handing me a container of water to help me get rid of the awful dryness in my throat.  
“Who went on another fruit trip?” He asked to the others.  
“Mark,” The quiet woman who had let us know of the legend spoke up. “he said he just wanted to grab an easy few that were better.”  
“Christ…”  
Without hesitation Matt and I hurried through the passage once again, calling out the man’s name loudly.  
“Wait. Did you hear that?” Matt paused.  
I paused, tilting my head. It was a low sound, almost far away but not quite.  
“Sounds like someone calling for help but I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”  
Matt took my hand and guided me slowly towards the first rubble house, his grip white knuckled and too tight to be comfortable. Entering the house we saw a horrifying splatter of fresh blood along the wall above where the fruit had been. Cautious, I leaned over to get a better look; the trap was on the ground a tanned arm still in its jaws. The call for help came again but this time it was easier to determine where it was coming from. It was coming from right below us. Slowly Matt and I approached the new hole in the floor, his hand flying to grab my arm in horror at the sight below us. We’d found Mark alright. We also found the three devil like creatures that had ripped him open and were dining on his innards.


End file.
